I’m starting to want a mac more and more and i’ve heard lots of good stuff about it, people rave on about how their workflow is better and it’s generally easy to use.

Hopefully I’d be using it on travels so I’d be opting for a Macbook instead of a imac or mac pro for the moment.

I’m leaning to the 13” 2.9GHz Macbook Pro / 15” Instead of the retina version for bigger hard drive / faster CPU, However with the retina using an SSD an external hard drive would get rid of the space issue.

Would the difference from 2.9GHz i7 to 2.5GHz i5 be that much of a difference?

What’s up with all the operating systems? Mountain lion and such, there seems to be about 4 out?

I’d love to hear your opinion on what would be the best and if it’s actually worth it’s price tag!

My advice would be, if you have the money, to get a Retina MBP. They’re much faster than the regular MBPs, the display is stunning, they make less noise (I rarely hear the fans, and that’s only when I run very demanding apps), don’t heat up as much and they’re lighter.

I have a retina MBP since September and I’m very satisfied with the experience, especially since I’ve been using Windows my whole life. Got the base model with 16GB RAM. Also, if going for a retina MBP, max it out as much as you can, you won’t be able to add SSD/RAM after purchasing.

Operating systems – in terms of versioning, think of Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8. When buying a Mac, you get the latest OS with it (that would be Mountain Lion now). Also, OS upgrades are pretty cheap, I believe the last one was $19 if I’m not mistaking.

Price tag is a whole discussion on its own. I spent almost 3000 Euros on my rMBP alone when I got it, but I don’t regret a single cent. For me personally, it’s a far better experience than with other machines that I ran Windows on. What sucks is that everything made for or by Apple, is premium priced, even if you get a laptop stand…

I bought the non-retina 15” version a few months back and absolutely love it. If I could have justified the extra cost then I would have bought the retina version, but at the end of the day it’s not really an issue. The non-retina does have some advantages though, such as dual sound connections and some user-updatable components.

I hadn’t used a Mac for over ten years and have been completely PC based, but after becoming frustrated with Windows, and not liking the look of Windows 8, decided to try a Mac laptop for the office.

Conclusion: it’s been a fantastic machine to work on and I love the Mac OS. When our PC’s need replacing we’re going to swap these for iMacs and eventually become completely Mac based.

You can keep costs down by buying non-Apple branded extras, for example we use standard PC external hard drives for back ups rather than the expensive Mac Time Machine version.

familychoice said
I bought the non-retina 15” version a few months back and absolutely love it. If I could have justified the extra cost then I would have bought the retina version, but at the end of the day it’s not really an issue. The non-retina does have some advantages though, such as dual sound connections and some user-updatable components.

I hadn’t used a Mac for over ten years and have been completely PC based, but after becoming frustrated with Windows, and not liking the look of Windows 8, decided to try a Mac laptop for the office.

Conclusion: it’s been a fantastic machine to work on and I love the Mac OS. When our PC’s need replacing we’re going to swap these for iMacs and eventually become completely Mac based.

Wow that’s a pretty massive statement!

So to you the retina wasn’t worth the extra amount? I’m stuck on that line too

Got the 15”, most sites look fine. Don’t believe what everyone says on the internet, go and test it yourself in a store – you’ll see most of the things you heard aren’t all true (I went through this as well). And of course, any USB device works. I personally got a Western Digital 1 TB external HDD that is USB 3, so I can use the high speed.

Anyway, it’s a good idea to test out as much as possible before purchasing. I went to the store several times to test the retina MBP and asked friends to let me fiddle with their non-retinas for as much as I could, to see how the OS workflow is like (coming from Windows, I had a 1-2 months learning curve, but it now feels natural).

RAM-wise – maybe now 16GB isn’t all that necessary as an SSD is, but it will matter over time, especially with a non-upgradeable laptop such as the Retina MBP. Again, if going for retina, max it out

I have the 2012 MPB, 13’’ with 4GB of RAM and I never had any kind of problem with speed or memory. I spent around 1200 euro on it and it’s great. The greatest thing of all, putting aside the great looks, the OS, the screen, the battery’s last time (which is still more than 6 hours, maybe even 7), it’s the track-pad. It takes you a day or two to get use to it. After that, you will never want to touch any other kind of input device, besides the keyboard. The minuses are only a few; I don’t like how the OS handles the pictures in folders and I’m still very confused about how to totally erase an application.

I just spoke to some live help on apple store, they said the max for macbook pro would be 8GB RAM sadly, I’m thinking 128gb SSD with a 2tb wireless hard drive / 2tb USB3, 15” but haven’t decided on retina or not yet, can you notice a crisper display on movies and such?

I’ve seen certain stuff on mac that seems brilliant like the file system where you go through layers and certain apps, the app system on windows 8 seems rather clunky and for some reason on windows I can only have windows full screen but on mac it just seems to work without having it full screen all the time

bodorobodo said
I have the 2012 MPB, 13’’ with 4GB of RAM and I never had any kind of problem with speed or memory. I spent around 1200 euro on it and it’s great. The greatest thing of all, putting aside the great looks, the OS, the screen, the battery’s last time (which is still more than 6 hours, maybe even 7), it’s the track-pad. It takes you a day or two to get use to it. After that, you will never want to touch any other kind of input device, besides the keyboard. The minuses are only a few; I don’t like how the OS handles the pictures in folders and I’m still very confused about how to totally erase an application.

I have slightly used the track pad and it seems brilliant and really smooth, would getting a magic mouse be a good idea? I use a USB mouse with my current laptop instead of the track pad as it’s a lot easier

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